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Flying Boys, Defibrillated Chickens, and Death By Lightning: A Brief History of Electricity and Magnetism

Thursday, January 31, 2013

A lecture by Paul Cadden-Zimansky, Physics Program

The development of almost all modern technology relies on a firm understanding of the concepts of electricity and magnetism, and these concepts are at the heart of fundamental explanations of most physical phenomena. The historical evolution of these concepts traces back thousands of years and took a number of surprising, unorthodox, and occasionally tragic turns before the rules governing electricity and magnetism were codified. In this talk, intended for a general audience, I'll review some of the key experiments and insights of past centuries that led to our present theories.